One of the best things about yoga and meditation is that they work for such a wide variety of people. Health, flexibility and calmness are not ideals that are restricted by age, size or gender, so as a senior, you have just as much potential with yoga as anyone. Here are a few tips on how to claim the benefits of yoga and meditation for yourself:

Do You Know How to Balance Fitness with Self-Care? If Not, You’ll Want to Read This!

Have you started a new fitness routine? If so, you should be proud of taking a healthy step forward in your life, but is fitness all you need to thrive? While staying fit can definitely help you stay healthy, you need self-care to really let yourself prosper. Balance your workouts with self-care using these transformative tips.

Submitted by Sheila Olson: Sheila Olson has been a personal trainer for five years. She believes the best way to achieve physical fitness and good health is to set and tackle small goals. She encourages her clients to stay positive and incorporates mindfulness and practices for reducing negative talk into her sessions. She created FitSheila.com to spread the word about her fitness philosophy.

I was listening to a Sunday afternoon radio talk show that was hosting a local sickle cell advocacy group. The spokesperson was discussing how sickle cell research is one of the most underfunded research topics. The radio host asked why and the spokesperson said, “I have my theories.” I wanted her so badly to say that it was because of the healthcare disparities that plague our nation.

In the blog entry, I'm already Great, I talk about how I experienced heart palpitations while working in a stressful environment. I'd heard the saying "stress kills", but never did I take it as seriously as I did the day my heart started racing and would not stop. I seriously thought I was dying. Here I am, a cardiac nurse, who didn't even know that you could actually die from being stressed out. My cardiologist told me I needed to quit my job, which I did nearly immediately. I wasn't about to let my job kill me. I have things to do.

So I only learned the term “getting read” recently when I discovered a podcast called The Read, which I enjoyed for all its mindless banter. They tickled me. At the end of each episode the host and hostess basically picked a topic that made their teeth itch, and would tell the irritating or insulting person or people about how awful they were. Nobody was safe. Random flight attendants. Celebrities. Anyone could get it. And I would listen and laugh because I thought it was funny.

“You’re going to be great someday, “ she said. I was sitting across the desk from this blonde-haired, hazel-eyed woman. We were practically the same age, but I was aware that I looked probably 10 years younger than her. No lie. I wondered if she noticed it too. I wonder if she realized that I would never age as quickly as she did. We both had our Master’s Degrees. We both taught on a collegiate level in a bachelor of nursing program. We were both mothers, married nearly the same length of time. She was no better than me.

Have you ever wondered if anyone is listening? I have. And I don’t mean just with their ears. Like, is anyone paying attention to the inflections in my voice, or lack there of? Is anyone concerned that I am not able to accept a compliment? Does anyone worry that I seem to not find enjoyment in anything? People ask, “how are you doing”, but don’t really want to know the answer. They aren’t listening. They stare at their phones while you tell them about how you haven’t eaten much this week. They then complain about how they have no Wi-Fi service, and ask are you able to connect. Connect. Of course, the answer is no.

Establishing boundaries is something that starts when we are children. We learn what people are allowed to do to, or with, us. We learn this from the adults that surround us. We learn which names we will allow people to call us. We learn how people are supposed to make us feel. How they’re supposed to touch us. We learn what we must allow.